AC 17 (natural armor)
HP 210 (20d10 + 100; bloodied 105)
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Proficiency +5; Maneuver DC 18
Skills Deception +9, Insight +10, Intimidation +9, Perception +10, Stealth +10
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities paralyzed , poisoned
Senses truesight 30 ft., darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 20
Languages Common, Undercommon, telepathy 30 ft.
Ethereal Sight. The fateholder can see into both the Waking and Ethereal Plane.
Innate Spellcasting . The fateholder’s spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 18). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
3/day each: alarm , detect thoughts , legend lore , mirage arcane , misty step , scrying
Lawful. The fateholder radiates a Lawful aura.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). When the fateholder fails a saving throw , it can choose to succeed instead. When it does so, one of its eight eyes becomes dull. Roll d8 on the list of Eye Beam secondary effects. Targets automatically succeed on saving throws against that effect.
Psionic Awareness. When a creature within 1 mile of the fateholder uses a psionic ability, the fateholder knows the creature’s direction but not its distance.
Spider Climb. The fateholder can use its climb speed even on difficult surfaces and upside down on ceilings.
Web Walker. The fateholder ignores movement restrictions imposed by webs.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The fateholder makes four claw attacks. It can replace any claw attack with an Eye Beam.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 18).
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target grappled by the fateholder. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage plus 21 (6d6) poison damage, and the target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw . On a failure, it is infected with pastrasites (T&T 163) which first manifest during its next rest.
Eye Beam. Ranged Spell Attack: +10 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d8) psychic damage and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or be subjected to one of the following randomly chosen secondary effects:
- Alter Fate. The target gains the doomed condition. It is aware it will die as a result of a bizarre series of coincidences in 13 (2d12) hours. In addition to the normal means of removing the condition, it can be avoided if the fateholder dies or chooses to end it as an action. Alternatively, the fateholder can instead permanently replace the target’s Destiny with one of the fateholder’s choice. A character who has unlocked the fulfillment feature of their previous destiny is considered to have already unlocked that of their new destiny.
- Cut Strand. The target takes an additional 13 (3d8) necrotic damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points it dies, its body disappears, and creatures that are more than 100 feet away when it dies forget about its existence until reminded. This effect can only be undone with wish or true resurrection .
- Foreshadow. The next hit on the target before the end of the fateholder’s next turn is a critical hit.
- Seal Spells. The target can’t cast spells or use psionic abilities until the end of its next turn.
- Shift Reality. The fateholder teleports the target to an unoccupied space within 120 feet of the fateholder. The space must be on a solid surface but the fateholder doesn’t need to see it.
- Tangle Psyches. The target is confused until the end of its next turn as several alternate versions of itself vie for mental control.
- Terrify. The target is frightened until the end of its next turn. While frightened in this way, its Speed is 0.
- Twist History. The fateholder alters a Large or smaller nonmagical object, or a 10-foot cube of a nonmagical Huge or larger object, within 5 feet of the target, replacing it with a similar object from another version of reality. The fateholder can create or destroy the object or change its nature (for instance, adding or removing a door to a wall). This change can’t immediately cause a creature or object to take damage or fall.
Ethereal Web (Recharge 5–6). The fateholder releases ethereal silk in a 60-foot cone. The area is filled with ethereal webs (see sidebar).
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
The fateholder can take 4 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. It regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Eye Beam. The fateholder uses Eye Beam.
Focused Eye Beam (Costs 2 Actions). The fateholder uses Eye Beam. On a hit, it chooses the secondary effect instead of rolling it randomly.
Combat
On its first turn, the fateholder uses Ethereal Web. On its next turn, it makes claw attacks until it has grappled an opponent, and then uses eye beams with the rest of its attacks. If it starts its turn grappling a conscious creature, it bites that target. With its legendary actions, the fateholder uses its eye beam on whatever creature attacked it most recently.
When the fateholder is bloodied , it tries to escape by traveling through an ethereal web.
Names
Antella, Auracha, Cob, Lanthis, Uttu, Widow Orbissa
Legends and Lore
With an Arcana or History check, characters can learn the following:
DC 10 Some giant spiders are intelligent and said to have mysterious goals.
DC 15 Fateholders are related in some way to phase spiders. Their webs can trap victims in the Ethereal Plane as well as provide a means of traveling to and from that plane.
DC 20 Fateholders believe themselves to be caretakers of fate. They hunt psionic creatures, claiming such beings threaten that end.
A giant arachnid with eight multicolored eyes, a fateholder fixes its prey with an unsettling gaze that can read, or even alter, the victim’s past, present, and future.
Ethereal Webs. Creatures that stumble into a fateholder’s web are whisked away to the Ethereal Plane. Those few that escape speak of whispering, silk-draped forests or of a misty, silver-spired city built on the back of a titanic spider.
When fateholders venture to the Waking to hunt, they often bait their webs with food and treasure. Similarly, they offer enticements of knowledge and riches when they negotiate.
Destiny’s Brood. Fateholders pay tribute to mighty beings called the Great Weavers and their progenitor, the Fate Spinner. In their service, fateholders order the world according to mysterious plans and do not hesitate to remove the creatures that they believe impede fate’s proper course. In particular, creatures with psionic power incur their wrath, and they ruthlessly hunt those with even the faintest glimmer of psionic ability. In doing so, the fateholders claim, they protect the world from unimaginable threats.
Collectors of Knowledge. In pursuit of inscrutable goals, fateholders amass vast quantities of knowledge through their various agents, from something as mundane as a book or scroll or as gruesome as the preserved heads of sapient creatures. They largely consider combat to be messy and banal, preferring conversation and exchange of information to any sort of confrontation, and will offer payment in exchange for secrets and the like. In contrast to their terrifying appearance, most fateholders are well-read and articulate, with a dry, cutting wit and a fondness for obscure literary references.
1 Pursuing a psionic creature such as a gem dragon wyrmling or a humanoid with psionic talent
2 Motionless in a web, waiting for Small or larger prey to venture in
3 Searching for heroes who will dispose of a hated enemy, such as a demon or cult leader, in exchange for gifts
4 Spinning a web into which are woven hundreds of names. It will pay to learn the names of passers-by to add
5 Going through its personal library looking for a specific tome
6 Conversing with the withered head of a green hag
1–3 Big sheets of translucent spiderweb
4 Dead humanoid in silk cocoon
5 infinity sign scratched into a surface
6 1d4 phase spider sentinels
Fateholders are native to the Ethereal Plane but can enter the Waking at will.
CR 11–16 fateholder ; fateholder with 2 or 3 giant spiders or swarms of insects ; fateholder with ethereal web
Treasure 4,000 gp, purple stone that glows when held by a creature with psionic abilities, wand of web
CR 17–22 fateholder with 2 phase spiders ; fateholder with chain devil or drider
Treasure 1,000 pp, bale of fine spidersilk (4,500 gp), 3 vials oil of etherealness , 2 vials of Skull Liqueur , staff of the web-tender
CR 23–30 2 fateholders ; fateholder with dead man’s fingers and ethereal web
Treasure 17 diamonds, each with a tiny spider inside like a fly in amber (5,000 gp each), lifeline loom (Huge loom that can be used to cast resurrection once per day), cloak of arachnida